Mr and Mrs Reeve visit Japan 吕富夫妇访日本

Mr and Mrs Reeve had just arrived in Narita Airport in Tokyo. They were waiting in the queue for the immigration check.
“Good morning, Mr and Mrs Leebu,” the officer was polite.
“It’s Reeve,” Mr Reeve corrected him.
“OK, Mr Leebu, how long will you stay in Tokyo?”
“My name is Reeve, not Leebu, and we are going to stay with our son and his family for a month.”
After several more questions, they were through to collect their luggage. Their son Paul was waiting for them in the arrival area.

吕富夫妇刚抵达东京成田机场。他们在入境检查排队等着。
“早安，李布先生太太，” 官员颇有礼貌的。
“是吕富，”吕富先生纠正他。
“好的，李布先生，你们要在东京待多久?”
“我的名字是吕富，不是李布，我们要跟我们的儿子和他家人一起住一个月。”
经过几个问题后，他们就出境去提行李了。他们的儿子保罗已在入境区等着他们了。

Paul was working for an international company, and he had been assigned to Japan a year ago. His wife Kathryn and little daughter Millie went with him. They had a comfortable western-style house in the suburbs of Tokyo. Paul had invited his parents to visit Japan many times, but Mrs Reeve always declined.
“I don’t like to leave the garden unattended,” she said. In fact, the main reason was that neither she nor Mr Reeve could speak a single word of Japanese, but they missed their grand daughter very much, and when their neighbours agreed to look after the house and garden for them they plucked up enough courage to make the journey.

保罗在一家国际公司工作，一年前他被派送到日本去。 他的妻子凯瑟琳和小女儿咪莉跟他一起去。 他们在东京郊区有幢舒服的西洋式房屋。 保罗曾好几次邀他的父母来日本，但吕富太太总是婉拒。
“我不喜欢把花园留着没人照顾，” 她说。事实上，主要的原因是她和吕富先生连一个日本字也不会说，可是他们很想念他们的孙女，当他们的邻居同意照顾他们的房屋和花园时他们就鼓起足够的勇气起程了。

Mrs Reeve had bought a Japanese-English phrase book, but the Japanese words and pronunciations were just too difficult for them.
“You can see English everywhere in Tokyo, and most Japanese people can speak some English. They are also very helpful, so you won’t have any problem,” Paul had told them, so they were not too worried about the language.
“Perhaps that immigration officer did not study English very well,” Mr Reeve thought.
Millie was delighted to see them; she has been going to a Japanese nursery school, and had learned a lot of Japanese already. She volunteered to be their guide, which made Mrs Reeve feel assured.

吕富太太买了一本英-日片语手册，但日本字和发音对他们而言真是太难了。
“在东京到处都可看得见英文， 而且大部分得日本人都会说点英语的。他们也都很乐于助人，所以你们不会有什么问题的， ” 保罗曾告诉他们，因此他们也就不太担心语言了。
“或许那个入境官员的英文没学得很好，” 吕富先生心想。
咪莉非常高兴看到他们﹔她已上日本幼稚园了，也已经学了很多的日文了。她自愿要当他们的向导，这让吕富太太感到放心多了。

The next morning when they were having coffee, the doorbell rang. Millie went to answer it.
“Ohio gozaimas, Tanaka San,” they heard Millie say in Japanese.
“Grandpa ando Grandma Leebu here?” a Japanese lady said.
“Hi,” Millie replied.
“Presento for Grandpa ando Grandma Leebu.”
“domo arigado gozaimas,” Millie said.
After a little while, Millie brought back a beautifully wrapped cake.
“Look! Grandpa, Grandma, Mr and Mrs Tanaka brought a present for you,” Millie said.
“The Tanakas are our next door neighbours, they are very kind, and have helped us a lot since we came” Paul said, “Millie loves it when they come to baby-sit her.”
“Japanese people are very polite, when they greet you or thank you they bow to show their respect,” Kathryn said.
“We could do with manners like that in England,” Mrs Reeve sighed.

次日上午当他们在喝咖啡时，门铃响了。 咪莉去应门。
“早安，田中先生太太，” 他们听到咪利用日语说着。
“李布爷爷和奶奶在这儿了吗?”一位日本女士说。
“是的。”
“给李布爷爷和奶奶的礼物。”
“非常谢谢，”咪莉说。
一会儿后，咪莉带回一盒包装精美的蛋糕。
“看!爷爷，奶奶，田中先生和太太带来一个礼物给你们，” 咪莉说。
“田中夫妇是我们的邻居，他们很亲切，自从我们来后就帮我们很多忙，”保罗说， “咪莉好喜欢他们来当褓母照顾她。”
“日本人都很有礼貌， 当他们跟你问候或感谢你时他们会鞠躬来表示敬意，”凯瑟琳说。
“在英国我们正需要有像那样的礼貌哩，”吕富太太叹着气。

On Monday afternoon, Mr and Mrs Reeve took a walk with Kathryn to collect Millie from the school. They noticed there was no litter on the streets.
“The Japanese council services must be excellent!” Mr Reeve was amazed.
“Well, it’s the peoples’ self respect really; Japanese people keep their environment very clean. Early in the morning every day, the housewives usually sweep all round their houses and the part of the street in front of their houses, sometimes even their next door’s too,” Kathryn explained.
“We could do with that kind of self respect in England,” Mrs Reeve sighed, “our village Rainford is clean, but so many of our towns are spoilt by litter.”

一个星期一的下午，吕富夫妇与凯瑟琳散步去学校接咪莉。他们发现街上连一点垃圾也没。
“日本的地方政府服务一定很完善!”吕富先生很惊奇。
“嗯，其实是人们的自尊心哩﹔日本人将他们的环境维持得很干净。每天一大清早，家庭主妇们通常会打扫房屋四周以及他们家前面的街道，有时甚至他们隔壁的也扫呢，” 凯瑟琳解释。
“在英国我们正需要有像那样的自尊哩，”吕富太太叹着气，“我们的乡村雷恩佛是干净，不过我们有很多城镇都被垃圾破坏了。”

Some parents were waiting there already when they arrived. Many of them came over to say hello. Mr Reeve shook hands with them while Mrs Reeve bowed,
“Hello, Mr Leebu, nice to meet you.”
“Konnichiwa, Leebu San.”
“Good afternoon, Leebu San.”
Paul had told them that there was no equivalent sound to the English ‘r’, ‘v’ or ‘th’ in the Japanese language, and many English consonants were sounded as if they had an extra e, o or u added on behind; so their surname ‘Reeve’ became ‘Leebu’, and Kathryn was frequently called ‘Kasleen’, while Paul was known as ‘Paulu’.
“And ‘present’ becomes ‘presento’, Grandpa,” Millie said proudly. They were trying to get used to the strange sounds of the English words.

当他们到达时已有些父母亲在那儿等着了。有很多过来寒喧。吕富先生与他们握手而吕富太太则鞠躬致意，
“你好，李布先生太太。”
“午安， 李布先生太太。”
“午安，李布先生太太。”
保罗告诉他们日文没有跟英文的‘r’，‘v’和‘th’相同的音，因此有很多英文的子音听起来好像字尾加了个‘ e’，‘o’或‘u’﹔所以他们的姓‘吕富’就变成‘李布’，凯瑟琳常被称为‘凯沙琳’，而保罗则被称为‘保路’。
“礼物present变成presento，爷爷，” 咪莉骄傲地说。
他们试着去习惯那种奇怪的英语字的音调。

Paul took the whole family to a restaurant one evening. Mr and Mrs Reeve ordered a traditional Japanese meal,
“We must try the food to have the full experience of Japan,” Mr Reeve said.
When the food was served, they enjoyed the beautiful presentation and the fine china dishes.
“These natto beans look interesting,” Mr Reeve said, awkwardly picking up some soybeans with his chopsticks and putting them in his mouth, but the threads of the fermented soybeans proved to be quite difficult to manage.
“You look like a spider eating a fly! Grandpa,” Millie laughed, “Now you are caught on the web yourself.”

有一个晚上保罗带全家去餐厅。 吕富夫妇点了传统的日式餐，
“我们得尝试日式食物才能有完整的日本经验，” 吕富先生说。
当菜都送来时，他们赞赏着优美的装饰与精致的瓷器。
“这些纳豆看来蛮有趣的，” 吕富先生说，笨拙地用筷子夹起一些纳豆送进嘴里， 可是那些发酵过的纳豆丝实在很难处理。
“你看起来好像一只蜘蛛在吃苍蝇喔!爷爷，”咪莉笑着，“现在你自己被卡在蛛网上啦。”

“I feel this piece of octopus is growing bigger and bigger the more I chew it.” Mrs Reeve didn’t quite know how to swallow it.
“Try this tuna sashimi, Mum, Dad, it’s delicious!”
“I think I’ll give it a miss, I don’t want a bad dream of being chased by a giant fish!” Mrs Reeve was reluctant, having just had trouble swallowing a big lump of octopus.
Mr Reeve quickly swallowed a piece of raw fish, remembering the fish and chips he liked back home, “That fried food Millie has on her plate looks rather nice.”
“It’s called tempura, Grandpa, and it’s yummy,” said Millie.
“This pretty Japanese food is for your eyes only!” Mr Reeve joked.

“我觉得这块章鱼我愈嚼它却变得愈大块。” 吕富太太不知道要怎么才能把它吞下去。
“试试这鲔鱼刺身(生鱼片)，妈，爸，很好吃喔!”
“我想我还是别试啦，我可不想要作恶梦被大鱼穷追呢!” 吕富太太没自信，方刚才为了吞那一大块章鱼时有那么麻烦。
吕富先生很快地吞下一块生鱼片，记起了在家时他所喜欢的鱼和薯条， “咪莉的盘子上的那些油炸的东西看起来蛮好吃的。”
“它们叫作天妇罗(油炸物)，爷爷，好好吃耶，” 咪莉说。
“这些可爱的日本食物只能眼看!” 吕富先生开玩笑说。

The following Friday, Paul’s Japanese friends gave them a ‘Welcome’ dinner in a Karaoke bar. Mr and Mrs Reeve have never done Karaoke before even though it was becoming popular in England. Paul’s friends started to sing and dance merrily after several servings of sake (Japanese wine), and even Paul was joining in with them and enjoying the noisy music. Mr Reeve were nervous at first, but he relaxed after some cups of sake and managed to sing a few songs with Paul, but Mrs Reeve didn’t want to look a fool in front of Paul’s Japanese friends, however she did enjoy the happy and totally relaxed atmosphere. This time they remembered to choose tempura food, so the evening was a thoroughly delightful experience for them.

接下来的那星期五保罗的日本朋友在一家卡拉OK 给他们一餐欢迎晚宴。 虽然在英国卡拉OK已逐渐普遍吕富夫妇却从未上过。喝了几杯清酒(日本酒)后保罗的朋友就开始快乐地唱歌又跳舞，连保罗也跟着他们一起享受着热闹的音乐。吕富先生一开始时有点紧张，但几杯清酒喝下后他就放松了居然也跟着保罗唱了几首歌，可是吕富太太不想在保罗的日本朋友面前出洋相，不过她倒很欣赏那快乐而完全轻松的气氛。这次他们记得点选天妇罗食物，所以那晚他们有个彻底地愉快的经验。

Mr and Mrs Reeve took trains and buses to many places, stayed in Japanese-style hotels, and tasted the local hand-made dessert and noodles. They were amazed how efficient and clean the public transportation systems were in Japan. They visited Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, the beautiful Himeji Castle and many famous places in Tokyo, such as the Meiji Shrine, Asakusa-Kannon Temple and Ueno Park; they went to the Kabukiza Theatre in Ginza to see one of the unique Japanese kabuki plays. Mrs Reeve had a wonderful time shopping in Ginza; she was very impressed by the smiling, polite and helpful shop assistants.

吕富夫妇搭乘火车和巴士到很多地方，住在日式旅馆，也尝试各处的当地手工甜点与面条。 他们很惊诧于日本的公共交通系统是那么有效率与干净。 他们参观了日本最高的山脉富士山，美丽的姬路城和东京许多著名的地方，例如明治神宫，浅草观音寺与上野公园﹔他们去银座的歌舞伎座剧院观赏日本独一的歌舞伎戏剧。吕富太太在银座购物时有了很不错的时光﹔她对那些带着微笑、有礼貌又乐于帮忙的店员颇有好感。

“They make me feel so pampered and I just can’t walk out of the shop without buying a thing or two.”
Mrs Reeve was particularly pleased with the elegant kimono, “I’ll be the envy of all my friends back home.” Mr Reeve couldn’t agree more since the kimono had made a big hole in their bank balance.
With so many new and exciting things to do, time passed too quickly and soon it was the end of the holiday for Mr and Mrs Reeve. Millie was upset when the time came for them to go, but they promised to visit again soon because they had had such an exciting time in Japan.

“她们令我觉得很受宠让我感到若不买一两件东西就走不出店。”
吕富太太特别对那优雅的 和服感到很满意，“回家后我将是我所有的朋友们羡慕的对象。”吕富先生是再同意不过了，因为那和服在他们的银行余额挖了个大洞。有这么多新的和有趣的事要做，时光过得可真快而不久吕富夫妇的假期就要结束了。当他们该离开的时候即将到来时咪莉感到很伤心，但他们答应很快会再来访因为他们在日本有了非常有趣的时光。